It’s V.P. Mentioning Season for the G.O.P.

Who will be Mitt Romney’s running mate? I can hardly wait to find out, and I’m sure you can’t, either. Lots of names are getting tossed around, with the background encouragement of Mr. Romney’s aides, who are trying hard to show that they’re doing a better job of vetting candidates than Republican nominees generally do.

The campaign let reporters know – or at least think – that two people who appeared with Mr. Romney and traveled with him on his bus the other day – were trying out for the job.

One was Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, one of those stalwart and seemingly not crazy Midwesterners that Republicans like to consider for national office but never select. Mr. Pawlenty was on John McCain’s mentioned-but-not-picked list, and will likely end up on Mr. Romney’s mentioned-but-not-picked list. He would be a safe, but extremely dull choice.
The other was Rob Portman, who won a Senate seat in 2010 after representing the Cincinnati suburbs in the House for 12 years. He’s another stalwart Midwestern conservative, and an early and loyal supporter of Mr. Romney. There’s just one tiny problem: He was President George W. Bush’s budget director from 2006 to 2007. Mr. Romney’s economic program is basically just a rerun of Mr. Bush’s deficit-exploding, market-imploding programs, but that’s not the impression Mr. Romney is trying to give.

Another talked-about candidate is Paul Ryan, the right-wing Congressman and supposed deficit hawk whose draconian and dangerous budget Mr. Romney has endorsed. It’s a horrible plan that would slash spending on social programs that Republicans like Mr. Ryan have always hated, in the name of balancing the budget. But it would also continue tax cuts for the rich that guarantee the budget won’t balance.

I think Mr. Romney would be better off leaving Mr. Ryan where he is, in Congress, causing trouble for the Democrats.

Marco Rubio, the charming senator from Florida, is sometimes mentioned for the VP slot. He’s just come out with a memoir, which means nothing really, but is highly thought-of in a media-driven age. Here’s an interesting quote from the book, “An American Son”: “If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here.” That’s just by the way. The Atlantic Wire, citing ABC news, says he’s not being vetted, so he’s an unlikely prospect. The article says the campaign mostly wants to use him to raise money among Hispanics.

The main thing, according to an article in The Times by Ashley Parker and Jeff Zeleny, is to make everyone understand that Mr. Romney is doing this very seriously. He’s looking for someone who is actually ready to be president, rather than learning on the job. I think we all know what that means: Not Sarah Palin.

The McCain campaign in 2008 sent out 80-page questionnaires before settling on Ms. Palin, who launched a 1,000 late-night jokes. She was the most ridiculous running mate in a long-string of bad Republican running mates.

George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney to run his vice presidential search, and after much effort and much searching, Mr. Cheney picked … Mr. Cheney, who was in ill health, with a defibrillator implanted in his chest.

In 1996, Bob Dole searched far and wide and came up with Jack Kemp, who was supposed to lend a certain vigor – of the football locker room towel snapping variety – to the ticket. But nobody thought he should be president and in the end, very few people thought Bob Dole should be president, either.

In 1992, George H.W. Bush ran for re-election with Dan Quayle. I covered Mr. Quayle fairly extensively when I was a White House reporter. He was smarter than people gave him credit for, and very charming and affable. He was also a true social conservative. People laughed at his Murphy Brown speech, but it was the first shot in the family-values war. The problem as nobody, probably including Mr. Quayle, thought he should be president.

The good news for Mr. Romney? With this history, it’s going be hard for him to do worse. Except that’s what a lot of people thought in 2008, when Mr. McCain was in this same position.